Evelyn Underhill’s “Theological Kindergarten”:
“Kindle our cold hearts and light up our dark minds”
Led by theologian Robyn Wrigley-Carr
Saturday, June 15, 2024, 9:30am – 3:30pm
Nourse Hall, St. Alban’s Episcopal Church
3001 Wisconsin Ave N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016
Please bring a sack lunch
Registration begins May 1, 2024
Download Registration Form
As World War II began, Evelyn Underhill was revising her retreat talks and her meditations on the Lord’s Prayer, first published in 1940 as Abba. Until her death in 1941, Underhill also wrote letters of support, inspiration, challenge, and courageous encouragement to a women’s prayer and study group–they called themselves “the theological kindergarten”–that she had agreed to lead in 1939. The war eventually scattered the members all over England, but they were united by Underhill’s letters to them, published after her death as The Fruits of the Spirit.
This Quiet Day is an opportunity to hear and heed Evelyn Underhill’s invitation to pray for the renewal of the Spirit in ourselves and the whole Church, to “‘kindle our cold hearts and light up our dark minds,’ showing us God’s Will for the future and enabling us to do our part” (from Letter to Members of the Prayer Group, Eastertide 1941).
Evelyn Underhill encourages us to attend to the invisible Reality underlying all we can see and touch. In the midst of our violent, dark, and fragile world, we will ponder Underhill’s thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer and also her last letters, written during a time of war, using them to discover hope, nurture, and refreshment and to steady ourselves in uncertain times.
Robyn Wrigley-Carr is Associate Professor in Spirituality and Spiritual Care at the University of Divinity in Australia. Her PhD (University of St. Andrews, Scotland) examined Baron Friedrich von Hügel as a spiritual director. She is the author of The Spiritual Formation of Evelyn Underhill (2020) and Music of Eternity: Meditations for Advent with Evelyn Underhill (The Archbishop of York’s Advent Book, 2021), and she edited Evelyn Underhill’s prayer book (2018). As well as writing numerous articles and presenting on podcasts, she is a spiritual director and leads retreats in Australia and England.
